Jenny teaches us how to make a quick and easy Friendship Star Sashing Quilt using 10 inch squares of pre cut quilting fabric or layer cakes. (We used Fresh Bloom by Michelle D'Amore for Benartex.)

Hi everybody, it’s Jenny from the MSQC. And I’ve got something really fun planned for you today. Today’s quilt is all about the sashing. So let’s take a look at it. So you can see this right here. These are all just ten inch squares. Great big squares. But look at this sashing. It makes this cool friendship star right where it all comes together. And I’m going to show you how to do this because this makes a really simple quilt, oooh-ahhh! And I just love it. So the fabric we’re using today is called Fresh Bloom. And it’s by Michelle Diamore for Benertex. And it’s just beautiful. You’re going to need one packet of ten inch squares so 42 of them. You’re also going to need a yard and a half of your sash fabric and a yard of your star fabric. So whatever color you decide to make those you’re going to need a yard and a half and a yard. And that’s going to make a quilt this size. And this quilt is 77” by 88”. For the border you’re also going to need a yard and a half. And look at this beautiful, big floral border we put on here. It’s so pretty. And it just makes a great size quilt. So let me show you how to make this because you are going to love this. This is a great way to set off a block.

What we’re going to do is we’re going to take our 2 ½ inch strip. And one of the reasons I wanted to show you this, this is going to be true confessions right now. So I do a lot of those block of the months. I love the block of the months. But I don’t put the blocks together in a quilt. I finish all the blocks. I do my block faithfully every month but then I have this bin that has all these completed blocks. But I don’t ever put them together in a quilt. This is a great way to do this. So whatever size your block is, that’s the size you’re going to cut your sashing. Our block that we’re using are these ten inch squares and so our sashings are going to be cut ten inches. But if you have a block that’s 12 or 12 ½ or whatever size it is you can cut these sashings to put your block together. And that’s, this is something that’s going to help all of us to put those block of the months together. So I’m going to cut off my selvedge edges and I’m going to go over however wide my block is. Ours is ten.  So I’m going to cut ten inch pieces just like this. So you’re going to do that. Hopefully your blocks are all the same size. That makes it the easiest. And you’re going to do that to all your strips. And then you’re going to need your little corners that are going to make your friendship star. And they’re all put on exactly the same.

So we’re going to take our black strips, our black 2 ½ inch strips and we’re going to cut those into 2 ½ inch pieces. And again I like to stack mine up. I mean, I like to, you can either stack them up or you can fold them so you’re dealing with a smaller area. And then I just, I just chomp away at them. So I’m going to cut off my selvedge edge right here. And then I’m going to come over 2 ½ because however wide your strip is that’s the size your squares are going to be. So that’s another one of those variables. If you decide you want a wider sashing, just remember whatever size your sashing is that’s what size your strips are going to be. So I’m going to make sure this one is cut at 2 ½ right here. And you’ll just stack up your squares like this. Alright so now we’re ready to create the friendship part.

And that is created by taking one sashing like this and putting a square. And you can iron this fold, I’m going to finger press it right here. This gives us a sew line. You’re going to put one square going this way and the other square the same. The same way. So we’re putting them on this way. Sew this way and this way is how they go. They’re going to end up looking just like this. But let’s go to the sewing machine and sew these on. So I’m going to follow my line here and I’m going to follow my line here. Same direction. I’m going to line this up right on my line here. And just sew straight across. And generally now, if I’m doing a whole quilt, I’m laying another strip in here and I’m doing the same square over and over again. I mean the same strip. I’ll do one after the other after the other after the other. That’s chain piecing. This one I want to show you so I’m just using, I’m just going to go ahead and put the other one on the bottom here. Making sure that it’s still going the same direction. So we’ve got our one line this way and the bottom line should go the same direction. And here we go like this.

Then what we’re going to do is we’re going to trim these corners off. So I’m going to take my little ruler and just come in and trim a quarter of an inch off of there and a quarter of an inch off of here. And then we’re going to press this back. Just iron it back. I’m going to go ahead and set my seam. Set my seam, roll it back, roll it back. Now you are going to do this to all your, all your white strips right here. All of them just like this. One after the other after the other, you’re going to do that. And then you are pretty much ready to put your blocks together. How easy was that? So just those two corners on there and you’re ready to go.

So then you’re going to take your blocks. We’re going to grab some out of here. Let me grab some so they look all different. You want to mix these up. And when you’re ready to lay these out, you’re going to take a block, and you’re going to put, sew the sashing to it. Because you measured it to your block it’s just going to fit exactly. You’re going to put your next block and you’re going to put your sashing next to it just like this. And you’re going to put your next block. And of course this depends on how many blocks you have. We’re using a packet of pre-cuts so we have six across by seven down. So you can see in between everyone of these is the sashing. Now you’re ready for the sashing strip in the middle. And that’s going to form the star.
So then we’re going to take our sashing strip. It’s the same and it’s going to go one of these and then a little 2 ½ inch block. And you’re going to add another strip and your block and another strip. And as you start adding rows like this, you’re going to see those stars form up right there. See there’s that little friendship star . Here it is right here. You can see it right on the quilt. I mean it just gives that whole block some pop. Now I can hardly wait to get to some of my block of the months and put those together because I think this is a great sashing idea. Super easy. Super quick and a great way to make a quilt. It looks great even with ten inch squares. So we hope you enjoyed this tutorial on the Friendship Star sashing from the MSQC.